


Domesticity

by Leni



Series: Cora's Daughter [14]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-22 01:42:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10687182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: Set a few days after Emma's arrival in town.





	Domesticity

**Author's Note:**

> Kacymyth prompted 'void'.

In this land where the everyday chores couldn't be managed with a set of spells, it had fallen to Belle to assume the role of caretaker of the house the curse had appointed to them. Mayor Gold had never given any thought to how his wife spent the hours while he was absent, and of course he had never noticed that Belle wouldn't step any further than their porch - and that to give him a kiss goodbye and wave him off as he drove to work.

Rumpelstiltskin seethed at the thought of the girl who'd brightened at the thought of traveling to other lands, trapped within four walls for the entirety of the curse. Even more galling was the knowledge that it had been his insistence to keep her close that had prompted Zelena to fabricate this persona who hung on Gold's every word and catered to his slightest whim.

That Belle's fate would have been worse without his interference was poor consolation when Rumpelstiltskin had to face her giddy smiles and her daily attempts to prove her love.

From the moment her alarm rang, to when she went to bed, the life of the mayor's wife revolved around her husband. She swung from bed to a quick shower, and then hurried downstairs to prepare a breakfast worthy of a prince. After the small banquet was served, she would spend her day worrying over every housekeeping detail from his laundry to a spot of dust in the living room. No social life whatsoever, no distractions except to welcome him home. Those smiles that greeted him every evening had no substance, all dazzle and no sentiment beyond the specifications of the curse.

No matter how he hinted, Rumpelstiltskin had yet to catch her with a book in her hands...

Final proof that the woman living with him wasn't Belle. It was her face and her voice, but her personality was locked in the same void as the rest of the town. The problem was that, where he didn't care about the others, it turned his stomach to face her every day.

This wasn't Belle!

Above all, Belle was honest. Belle's real smiles held that hint of amazement behind them, as surprised to feel happiness as if she'd suddenly grown wings and set off into flight. Belle didn't agree with everything he said, not since she had understood that there would be no punishment if she spoke her mind freely; Belle's trust had been a prize he'd been shocked to earn. Their life together had been marked with misunderstandings and arguments, but also with acceptance and long stretches of peaceful company in the Dark Castle.

She had been loyal, but not blindly so.

This woman who gazed at him with her heart in her eyes while she poured his coffee was someone Rumpelstiltskin did not recognize.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked, tilting her head with worry. "You've hardly eaten this week."

Breakfast was the same elaborate confection that had awaited him in the kitchen every morning since Emma's return had woken him. Even the single bite of warm homemade bread that he had taken already tasted like ashes in his mouth, and of course she had noticed.

"Are you ill?" Her hand came to feel his forehead, but Rumpelstiltskin reared back with a sharp shake of his head. The more time they spent together, the less he was comfortable with her affectionate touches.

He had been to bed with her after a few days of acquaintanceship, but she had always been aware of the deal between them and even set some of the terms herself. To be gifted with her attention just because it was part of a script she was forced to follow... "No," he said, perhaps more forcefully than he ought to.

Confused, she stared at him.

Belle would have shrugged and left him to his grouchiness, content to entertain herself until his good mood returned. This woman - his wife, for as long as they stayed under the curse - looked on the verge of tears.

Rumpelstiltskin sighed.

He was no more able to hurt her now than he had been in their world. "It's nothing," he told her, softening his voice. "Just a little stressed, I think."

She was nodding before he finished speaking, needing no further explanation. "Of course! That White girl." Her forehead burrowed into a brief frown, but immediately she was smiling again. Before he could duck away, her arms were around him and her lips dropped a kiss on his temple. "You shouldn't worry so much, love. I don't care what that girl says; if she lived here she would know that she is wrong." She gave a small roll of her eyes, unable to see how anyone could claim that people actually vanished after visiting their town. "Nothing ever happens in Storybrooke!"

Rumpelstiltskin sagged into the back of his chair, not quite finding the will to disentangle himself. Tomorrow he would leave earlier and avoid this scenario, but today he could still indulge her in this illusion of happy domesticity. "You're right, of course," he said, chuckling as well, and unsurprised when the woman who had read him so well in the Dark Castle didn't pick on the darker edge of his humor now. "Nothing ever happens here."

 

The End  
20/04/17

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love! Please leave a comment. :)


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